Letters

Kosovan freedom

It is sad that Tom Lantos (Obituaries, February 13) will not be there next Sunday when Kosovo finally proclaims its independence, something for which he long campaigned in Congress and outside it. His support for this cause was based on an understanding that it alone would bring to closure the destruction of the former Yugoslav federation, initiated by Milosevic and his backers in the late 1980s, and thus open a new chapter in the history of south-east Europe.

Reporting in western media has mainly focused of late on Serbian objections and fears; but the independence of Kosovo will in the long run prove to be positive not just for its own inhabitants (non-Albanians included), but also for Serbia itself, for Macedonia, and indirectly also for Bosnia. It will put an end to the Greater Serbia project that has brought so much suffering to the region, not least to ordinary Serbians and to the Serb minorities in neighbouring countries. Finally, it will right a historic injustice initiated almost a century ago during the Balkan Wars - when Kosovo was forcibly annexed by Serbia against the will of its population, most of which was already Albanian - and perpetuated for much of its subsequent history.Quintin HoareDirector, The Bosnian Institute